*** Now talking in #suburbansenshi*** Topic is '-= Sailor Lead Crow makes paint bad for Children =-' &LTFireFly_9&GT Hmm, finally I have seen the Matrix Reloaded
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Jed made good on his promise to take you to the Dollar Theatre, then?
&LTFireFly_9&GT Yes. But we snuck in the back door. He forced me to.
&LT// J_Daito //&GT Dark Generals don't *pay* for things!
&LTFireFly_9&GT It was a *dollar* theatre.
&LT// J_Daito //&GT It was the PRINCIPLE of the thing
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Well, Hotaru-chan, now you have seen how a once-thought provoking movie series has been reduced to nothing but cheap fights scenes with a dash of obligatory psudeo philosophy to make it seem "deep".
&LTGERMATOID&GT SOMEONE'S BEEN READING THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON SLASHDOT!!
&LTFireFly_9&GT Michiru-momma, I must respectfully disagree.
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Oh? Please. The first movie questioned the very nature of reality, something the second conveniently forgot until about midway through when Neo gets to the center of things, so to speak.
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Look, even so, the fight scenes ROCKED!
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Oh, do shut up, Haruka. You'd watch anything with a fight scene in it. I could get you to watch a documentary on the mating habits of sea monkeys if they would work in a decent fight scene.
&LTGERMATOID&GT THEY OVERUSED THE CGI, ESPECIALLY IN THE BIG SET PIECE WITH NEO AND... ALL THOSE GUYS. THEY SLOWED IT DOWN SO MUCH
&LTGERMATOID&GT THAT IT WAS A PARODY OF ITSELF-- AND IT EXPOSED THE FLAWS IN THE TRANSITION BETWEEN LIVE ACTION AND CGI
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Yeah... they shoulda kept it all fast, it would have looked more real. The highway stuff was better, because it was a neat use of virtual camera angles (I guess you'd call it that?)
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Michi is complaining a lot, but all she _really_ wants is a piece of that guy's pie.
&LTFireFly_9&GT o_0;;
&LTFireFly_9&GT I can't believe all of you are missing the point.
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT What... that pie was EFFECTIVE... Pfizer should look into hiring that guy
&LTFireFly_9&GT ^_^;; I'm not talking about the PIE.
&LTFireFly_9&GT A lot of people seem to think this movie "dropped the ball" in the philosophy department in favour of the battle scenes... but by looking only for a strict continuation of the themes from the first movie, they utterly miss
the discussion unique to _this one_.
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Do go on, O enlightened one...
&LTFireFly_9&GT Whereas movie one spoke to the nature of reality, and whether our perceptions of it were merely the illusions of a greater whole,
&LTFireFly_9&GT This movie spoke to a more fundamental problem of existence-- _why_ do we do what we do?
&LTFireFly_9&GT Do we do it because we are trained to obey someone else's orders couched in prophecy, religion, or internalized ethical codes, never really thinking about the situation for ourselves?
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT We DO IT because of the PIE!!
&LTFireFly_9&GT ^_^;;
&LTFireFly_9&GT ..even if every order seems to be correct and yield proper results, does that mean we are doing things as the result of our own belief, or merely one that has been instilled into us by someone else with their own agenda?
&LT// J_Daito //&GT -yawn- I just went for agent smith.
&LTFireFly_9&GT ...
&LTFireFly_9&GT Do we do what we do because of true personal motivation, or merely adherence to an external code so deeply engrained into us that it becomes seemingly indistinguishable from our personal motivations (to the point where we are even fooled ourselves)
&LTGERMATOID&GT LIKE NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING?
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Like what now?
&LT// J_Daito //&GT NLP... that dumbass who sends out "Speed Seduction" spam likes to talk about it, but it's really a big deal in psychology... using words and phrases and calculated repetition to make you believe the other person is in sync with you and to mold your actions via your subconcious reaction. Dark Kingdom used it all the time.
&LTFireFly_9&GT Like mentioning "Iraq" and "September 11th" in the same breath repeatedly... they have nothing to do with each other, but now 68% of the people think they did because of the incessant proximity of the concepts in official speech.
&LT// J_Daito //&GT You just had to sneak that bit in, didn't you?
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Speed Seduction, eh... hmmm
* --=[ SpeedRcrX ]=-- loads browser&LTMdm_Maestro&GT HARUKA!
&LT--=[ SpeedRcrX ]=--&GT Only for you, baybee, only for you.
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Hmph
&LTFireFly_9&GT Ecchi... look, where movie one was about "is what we see real?", this one was mainly about "is what we believe real?" in that does it come from us, from a drug (see the pie) or from some external manipulator. How do we know? And what do we do when we find our beliefs have been tainted? Can we recover?
&LTMdm_Maestro&GT Hotaru, stop trying to read something into the film that isn't there. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
&LTFireFly_9&GT Rewatch the film with these concepts in mind and you will see that it is there. When Neo has to make a decision, wrestling with his beliefs from the past telling him how he should act, and then the beliefs that come from his own heart... that decision has profound consequences... and shows that one
&LTFireFly_9&GT must at some point confront dead on the source of their beliefs, and if needs be, to discard them for a new path.
&LT// J_Daito //&GT No wonder a lot of other countries banned this movie as subversive.
&LTFireFly_9&GT Heh. I suppose it could be. The people who did that obviously got the message the movie was intended to convey.
&LT.'~SugaBB_2999~'.&GT dt mvie wuz 2 log, bt i likd da pi, it wz lik da 1 elios gve me 1 tim
&LTGERMATOID&GT HOW CAN YOU TYPE... WITHOUT HANDS?
&LT.'~SugaBB_2999~'.&GT oh im bak nw, momy usd da sliver cystal 2 reviv me cuz she didt wat da job of bng salier mon in da futr 2.
&LT// J_Daito //&GT ARRGH
&LT// J_Daito //&GT Damn that Silver Crystal and it's reset button properties!!
&LT.'~SugaBB_2999~'.&GT dats rite batch, im bak... chibusa reloded
&LT// J_Daito //&GT ... I think I'm just gonna go get myself "reloaded" at the liquor store now
&LTGERMATOID&GT SAVE SOME OF THAT ABSINTHE FOR ME, JEDDY!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
*** Disconnected

Well I'm not going to be like some people who claim "The Matrix" movies are the penultimate expression of philosophical truth or anything like that. They're fun action movies that don't shy away from asking interesting questions about reality-- they leave the viewer something to think about. I look at it this way-- I don't feel like the time I spent watching the movies is time I want back (as opposed to after seeing some stinkers like _Meet Joe Dirt_). And any intellectual stimulation as a result is a bonus.

So I'm not gonna say "YOU MUST SEE THE MATRIX"... but there are worse ways to spend one's time.

(Keep in mind that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool geek and supremely-part-time philosopher, so stuff like the Matrix is like candy to me)